I’ve been slacking for two weeks. Both my gym activity and running have been hit or miss and overall I’ve been lacking any trace of consistency. I’ve been sick and hurt, my kids have been sick, even my wife has been sick – and she NEVER gets sick. This is not so much an excuse for my lack of activity as it is simply the reality of the situation.
Tomorrow morning I’m going back to it.
Can’t wait.
I’ve run quite a few races, but never really stopped to think, “Where does the water at the water stations come from?”
After reading this article, Las Vegas marathon runners say they were sickened, from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, I will most likely give it more thought next time. It doesn’t sound pleasant. Give the article a read for more of the gory details, there seemed to be lots of issues with bodily fluids after consuming water at the water stations.
I guess I’ve been lucky, I’ve never had any issues with water quality in the races I’ve run. Still, it begs the question – who supervises the conditions the beverages (water or other) are portioned out? Is there any kind of sanitation monitor to ensure that hands are washed, containers cleaned, and utensils sanitized? Do runners need to start bringing their own water to organized races?
Some days you just know from the minute you get up that it’s going to be a challenge to just make it through. Today was that day for me. In the end I got through it, kept a positive attitude (most of the time) and ended up having a pretty decent day. What is interesting about this is that if you would have asked me a few hours ago how my day was, I don’t think I would have had such a positive reflection on the day. So, what changed? Just one little thing…
…I went for a run.
I don’t know if anyone else has found this true, but getting in a workout can change your whole perspective on the day. It’s amazing how exercise – whether its running, lifting weights, or doing something else physical – can totally shift your mindset from negative to positive. From depressed to exuberant. Flips the switch from autopilot to jet pilot. Today was a prime example of that for me. As I noted above, I kind of slogged through the work day, not feeling bad – just not feeling, well, alive or engaged. Once I got home, things were more challenging – the kids were a little insane and I was moderately grumpy, never a good combination. There was yelling. I do that sometimes, I don’t like it – but it happens. At any rate, thanks to my loving and patient wife we all got through dinner and the kids eventually went to bed.
And then I ran.
And I felt better.
Reflections on the day seemed brighter and the future seems more exciting. All of this because I hauled myself to the gym, hopped on the treadmill and ran 2 miles. Yep, that was all it took to flip the switch – 2 miles, less than 20 minutes. I feel like a different, new, better, me. Call it ‘runners high’, blame it on the endorphin’s, I don’t really care – I’m just glad to end the day happy, healthy, and looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow.
For a while I’ve wanted to get back to writing more and spending a little more time and effort on my blog. I’ve tried all sorts of different things. I used to host my own WordPress blog but I found I spent more time keeping the software up to date than I did actually writing and while the technical stuff was fun, after a while I got tired of it. I also tried Joomla for a bit and that proved even more time consuming and frustrating. After a while I move the site over to Posterous.com which was OK but I never really like it too well. So, at any rate here I am back at WordPress – only this time I’m letting WordPress host it – seem much simpler.
As for content, I’m going back to writing about what I wrote when people actually read this blog (at one point I did have a fairly good base of readers, not anymore) – running, health, fitness, family, and life in general. Some may be interested, some may not. Bottom-line, I just want to write again and enjoy sharing with everyone what I am doing. I may occasionally post some video or re-post something interesting I find out on the internet.
Thanks!
My current company is looking at Hadoop for data storage, looks very promising.
This is a great video that highlights the importance of not only data collection, but data visualization and data context as well. Too often, the context within which data is found is missed and incorrect or invalid assumptions are made. This shows clearly how this can happen and how important it is to carefully consider the data points being used in analysis.
